Microsoft to end bundled VMware licenses on Azure

Microsoft has announced it will stop selling bundled VMware licenses as part of its Azure VMware Solution (AVS). This change aligns with Broadcom’s strategic shift to prioritize VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as its primary licensing and product bundle.

Under the current AVS offering, Microsoft provides entitlements for VMware vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, and NSX. However, Microsoft will cease selling these license-included deployments after October 31, 2026. Following this cutoff, new deployments will no longer be able to access the bundled model.

Existing AVS users must transition to the AVS VCF Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model by August 30, 2027. Microsoft advises administrators to begin planning immediately, accounting for the time required to purchase VCF licenses from Broadcom, validate license portability, and manage potential workload modernization or migrations.